Funeral on Wednesday of Coleraine car park tragedy victim

The funeral will take place on Wednesday of the female pedestrian who lost her life after being struck by a car in Coleraine on Friday evening.

Jill Elder, from the Garvagh area, died after being involved in a collision with a Vauxhall Corsa car in the Railway Place car park.

A service will be held in her home on Wednesday at 2pm followed by interment in Kilrea Cemetery.

It is understood she had only returned a matter of months ago to the small town where she had grown up, having lived in England for some time.

The DUP’s Adrian McQuillan said he knows the Elder family personally and expressed his sympathies.

“My heart goes out to them,” he said. “The family have been in Garvagh as long as I’ve been in Garvagh. I understand she had lived in England for a long time and she has just returned home.

“Words couldn’t describe it. Imagine living in England for a long time like that and then coming home only for this to happen. It is so, so sad.”

Mr McQuillan added: “I know the family personally and they are a very close family. You would always have seen them together when you were out and about – very close knit.

“I knew her granny well, her aunts and uncles and it’s just so sad. It doesn’t even bear thinking about. It is just so sad and I want to offer my sympathy to the whole family. To get that knock on the door to say that someone in your family has been killed is awful.

“I understand she was a pedestrian and she was hit by a car – a terrible tragedy to happen to any family.”

Mr McQuillan said the community in the small town of Garvagh has been left reeling.

“The whole community in Garvagh really has been stunned by it,” he said.

Inspector Colin Reeves of Coleraine PSNI has appealed for anyone who was in the car park around this time and who witnessed the collision to contact local officers or the Collision Investigation Unit on 101.